CONIFERAE. 79 



Their leaves disposed in spirals and touching one another are all alike, and 

 are unusually abbreviated ; the basal portion is developed in the form of 

 a polygonal shield with a central boss ; the apex is very obtuse, and being 

 usually curved inwards is thus withdrawn from observation, but in some 

 cases it assumes a larger growth, and then it is not easy to distinguish the 

 branches from Pagiophyllum. A dot-like often conspicuous protuberance 

 on the back of the shield appears to answer to an oil-gland occupying the 

 same place here as in our Cupressineae. Many Jurassic forms are to be 

 found figured in Saporta J . The fructification of these coniferous branches 

 can scarcely be said to be known ; Saporta indeed figures some elliptical 

 cones which in habit do to some extent resemble those mentioned under 

 Walchia : he also, as is usual with him, indulges in a variety of conjectures 

 respecting their structure which is but indistinctly shown ; but still he does 

 not prove that they really belong to the branches of Brachyphyllum Jau- 

 berti and B. Moreauanum, near which they were found at Verdun and 

 Chateauroux. Heer 2 has found spherical cone-like bodies attached to the 

 extremities of the branches of his B. insigne from the Lower Oolite of 

 Siberia, which are composed of polygonal scales like those of the branches 

 themselves, but there is nothing by which we can judge of their internal 

 character. A figure of this conjectural fruit of B. insigne is to be found in 

 Schenk 3 , together with an enumeration of all the described species, but this 

 would not be of any interest in this place. It may be mentioned that 

 Saporta has determined one species, B. nepos, from among the coniferous 

 branches from Solenhofen which were included by Schimper in his genus 

 Echinostrobus. These remains are present in abundance in the Middle and 

 Upper Oolite of France and England ; among them is B. mamillare, Brongn., 

 from Scarborough. 



We must mention in conclusion the genus Camptophyllum described 

 by Nathorst 4 from the Rhaetic beds of Schonen, though the author himself 

 regards it as a fossil incertae sedis. The remains are small portions of 

 branches with a stout axis, and flat acicular leaves bent backwards in a 

 peculiar manner and forming an arch. 



The small fragments of branches beset with scale-like leaves, and also 

 the small acicular leaves with two longitudinal keels, which Sterzel 5 

 describes as Dicalamophyllum Altendorfense from the hornstones of the 

 Rothliegende of Chemnitz, are of quite doubtful character. 



The surface of primary and other branches of Coniferae without their 

 leaves appear also to have been preserved here and there in impressions or 

 in casts ; but as it is perfectly impossible to say in the case of any of these 

 remains that they certainly belong to Coniferae, we need not cite in this 



1 de Saporta (4), vol. iii. 2 Heer (5). s Zittel (1), p. 3- * Nathorst (3), and Zittel 



(1), p. 351. Sterzel (1). 



